Everything you have and everything that is around you began with a thought.

That was not — and is not — the entire process, though.

To attain something, you must . . .

. . . think . . .

. . . and then plan . . .

. . . and then do.

Action is required to bring to you your “own.”

A person thinking about writing a book will never “manifest” a book by thought alone. He must write the  book. He must . . .

. . . outline the book . . .

. . . produce a rough draft . . .

. . . edit that rough draft . . .

. . . let other people read and criticize what he has written . . .

. . . re-draft . . .

. . . re-write . . .

. . . edit . . .

. . . and repeat it all again and again until the book is . . .

. . . finished.

Action is part of the process that Charles F. Haanel espoused. It might not be the largest part; often, though, it is the most time-consuming and most difficult to perfect.

Yes, Mr. Haanel will teach you how to think properly and correctly. And always with taking action in mind.

That’s why he wrote this in Week Nine of The Master Key System . . .

To know the Truth is the underlying condition necessary in every business transaction or social relation.

The “Truth” is the intrinsic meaning or value of something. It is seeing a thing as it really is instead of seeing or being fooled by appearances or ornament. Look back to the exercise in Week Eight (the battleship) to see it in action. You are not just disassembling the ship, you are taking it back to its root cause. As you do that with everything that you experience, you gain a greater understanding of what something is.

In short, you are “distilling” reality to see past the shibboleths of your mind and to see reality free of preconception, ornament, and impurities.

For example, many people are befuddled by business, but each and every business can be reduced to merely the buying and selling of a good or service: you have something people want and you sell it to them at a price that is greater than what it costs you to produce or provide it. Everything over and above that is just ornament:

a clown as your mascot to help you sell hamburgers . . .

. . . the beautiful design of your computer . . .

. . . the uniforms . . .

. . . the logos and advertisements.

Below the surface of what we see is the root of what is actually happening.

It is an idea come to life.

It is the flower sprouting petals and the bird spreading its wings.

From a thought springs the action that makes what we see and experience in the world.

You will know them by their fruits.

That is Matthew 7:16.

You don’t know who or what someone is until you see what they do.

A good person does good things.

A noble person, noble things.

In all cases, we know a person by what they do.

We call a person who writes a writer.

We call a person who builds businesses a business person.

Yes, it all begins with a thought.

But those thoughts — all those long hours of thinking and planning — must manifest in action.

Because it is in the doing that things get done.

And become reality.

Long and purposeful thought will lead to concrete and powerful actions.

So, think long and hard.

And then act . . .

. . . decisively . . .

. . . accurately . . .

. . . and intensely.

—

It’s fun to take action because it leads to great things.